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unlocked at the hallway itself using a double keycard system, just like this room.”
    “Awesome, thanks,” Deirdre said. She snapped her fingers at him. “Magic. Locks. Go.”
    Reuben rounded on the lockers against the opposite wall. He fumbled with his keycard, struggling to open them.
    Deirdre started flipping switches along the top row, watching the lights switch from green to orange. Maybe some employees would get a chance to escape before Stark found them. It would also help her beat a hasty retreat when the time came.
    “You’re crazy,” Reuben said. “You’re all crazy.”
    “Probably. But I’m the crazy who isn’t killing you, so your night could be worse. Trust me.” She flipped the last of the switches and stepped back. Deirdre jerked a thumb at the cellblock that the security room overlooked. “What kind of prisoners are kept in there?”
    Reuben was sweating as he opened the cabinets, revealing the charms dangling inside. He mopped at his forehead with an arm. “Uh…those are the nonviolent offenders. Like, you know, minor misdemeanors done so many times they had to get charged for a felony.”
    The back of her neck prickled. “Misdemeanors?”
    “Trespassing, theft, use of lethe…”
    Her hand reflexively went to the opposite wrist, where Everton Stark had inserted a needle only a few hours earlier, injecting lethe directly into her veins.
    He was using it to see if she might shapeshift under the influence. So far, it hadn’t happened. But he kept offering and she kept accepting.
    It was no big deal. A short high, a few visual hallucinations, and no appetite for days.
    These people were imprisoned for it. They would never see sunshine again.
    Just because they had been chasing a high.
    Deirdre watched through the window as Stark and Andrew burst into the cellblock. The walls were so thick that she couldn’t hear them, but she didn’t need to. The prisoners went wild as soon as they saw Stark. He had a lot of fans in the detention center.
    “After you initiate the magical override, we’re going to have to make it look like you kicked my butt,” Deirdre said. “And you’ll have to get out fast so that Stark doesn’t retaliate against you when he discovers my body.”
    Reuben flinched. “Your…body?”
    “Unconscious, not dead.” Deirdre drummed her fingers on the holster of her gun. The tapping reminded her of rainfall. She stopped it. “Got any magic that you can toss around to make things look properly mucked up?”
    “I can make something,” Reuben said. “I’m activating the magic now, just so you know.”
    “Great.”
    Deirdre couldn’t take her eyes off of Stark through the window. At any moment, he was going to realize the cells were locked and track her down in the security room. He’d catch her trying to betray him. And he’d make her regret it.
    They had to move fast.
    She twitched when Stark leaped toward one of the cell doors. He was barking orders to Andrew. Deirdre wished she could hear him so she could figure out what he was talking about.
    But then she realized that the locks were melting.
    Each one of the cell doors was starting to glow, and the metal was dripping into a white-hot slurry, sealing them closed.
    Reuben’s magic was working.
    She saw Stark’s mouth open in a shout, and he grabbed the bars of a cell in both hands, as though attempting to rip it out of the wall. For a heartbeat, she felt satisfaction in knowing she’d beaten him for once—but then she saw why the hint of panic was flashing over his face.
    It wasn’t just the lock melting.
    The inside of the cell was warped with heat and vibrating with magic. Not just that cell, but every cell around it, too. And it was spreading out in ripples to take the next prisoner, and the next.
    The incarcerated shifters were screaming. They were so loud that Deirdre could hear them faintly through the reinforced glass.
    She whirled on Reuben. He was grabbing more of the charms, activating them as